My Quarterly Update...

Well, I guess that I am never going to be able to turn this over to Katie. I don't know how she doesn't have time to update it while she goes to school full-time and works 20 hours a week... Anyway, let me try to update you on what we have been up to for the past few months.

Lets start in November. Things finally slowed down for me at work and it was nice to get back to 40 hour weeks. Well, it was nice to be home but only getting 40 hour week pay wasn't as nice.
Katie had Thanksgiving week off from school and so I took a few days off and we headed to Spring Creek to meet up as Fishers for a feast. We all piled into Aaron's beautiful house. They have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into their home and it has really turned out quite nicely. The Ruby Mountains are in their back yard and serve as a nice sunrise view. While we were there we took a couple trips up the canyon and were able to see a lot of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep as well as some Mountain Goats. It was really neat to be able to get so close to the sheep. I know that Aaron's boys really enjoyed it and will always remember sneaking up on those powerful creatures. One of the best parts of the trip was on Saturday when Aaron baptized his oldest son Jacob. It was nice that we could all be together to witness and support Jacob in this big step.

December was pretty mild for us in Rexburg. We were able to get out of town before the big storms hit. We met up with Aaron in Ely then traveled to Vegas and met up with my good friend Rod for the 2008 Vegas Bowl. It was the fourth in a row for Rod and I. I took Katie last year and Aaron was able to make it the year before. It was a quick trip. Got into town at about noon on Saturday and gone by 9 a.m. Sunday morning. We didn't get the results that we would have liked but really enjoyed our time together. Rod and his wife Janene have been friends of mine since I was a freshman at Ricks College in 1998/1999. They are true friends and have been so good to me through the years. Rod is one of my few friends that I can always count on for anything.

Katie and I spent a couple more days in Ely after the game and had a little early Christmas with my parents and Becky's family. We headed up to Malad on the 23rd to spend the rest of our break with Katie's family. We had a really good time there and were very spoiled. Katie's mom and dad are very good about getting thoughtful presents. Other than on my mission and my first Christmas, it was the first time that I hadn't had been home for Christmas Day. It was nice to be with my new family and partake in some of their traditions. The only down side is that I was pretty sick the whole time and spent a lot of time in bed.

We headed back up to Rexburg the day after Christmas to try to fill our cow elk tags. We had a pretty hard time because the early winter was so mild that a lot of the elk had not made it to their winter range which happened to be where our tags were. On the last morning Katie spotted some and we tried to get into a shot but we had a little buck fever and lost the opportunity and before we could get on them again they had escaped onto the INL site where we couldn't chase them. Smart little buggers. It was a good experience even though we were not successful. I think we both learned a lot and will be better prepared next season.

January was kind of a rough month. I was laid off from the Forest Service and struggled finding work for a few weeks. Don't get me wrong, I was happy that I got to go ice fishing and work on some projects (i really could get used to not going to work if i won the loto or something), but money got pretty tight. We did have some good luck come our way when I was able to pick up some work for my old boss Randy. I worked for Randy while I went to college. He was always so good to me back then, and continues to be now. He happened to be building some more storage unites on one of his properties and needed some help so I was able to get about 5 weeks in before I got brought back to the FS in mid February.

Katie has been getting to be quite the markswoman. I think in the right conditions she could definitely out shoot me. One issue we have had is that some of my pistols are a little big for her hands and do not offer her a real option for use outside of target practice under the "best" conditions. I have been looking on-line and doing a lot of research and found what I thought would be a good option for her (i actually quite like it for myself). The Ruger SP101 5Shot Revolver. Well, at about the same time we decided that was the right gun for her one showed up for sale in Utah. It just so happened that it was about the same time as the BYU-utah B-ball game in Provo. What a great weekend it ended up being. We stayed with Katie's parents Friday night and they cooked up a feast and sent us off with a big breakfast on Saturday morning. We stopped in Ogden on the way down and picked up her gun. I was so proud of her because she was the one that called the guy and made the deal etc. She had the biggest grin on her face as we got into the car. We then continued on to SLC and met up with my buddy Rod. He had scored us a ticket to the game so all I had to to is pick up another one for 10 bucks. We were able to get ourselves into 10th row seats at about the mid-court line. It was a great game to watch and we had so much fun taunting the dirty puke players.

I think the next week was the longest week ever. I couldn't wait to get Katie out and watch her handle her new piece. Of course Saturday morning was wicked cold and windy with snow flurries but that didn't stop us. Katie was very impressive with her shot placement and got me a little worried about ever ticking her off...:) I am excited to spend more time out practicing with her as the day's get warmer. Another highlight of the day was seeing a cow moose and her calf just a quarter mile out of town in a field. I have seen a few around here but never that close to town. I took some pics and got about 40 yards away and they didn't seem too concerned with me. I didn't go any closer because I have always been a little afraid of getting my butt kicked by a momma moose.

I guess that catches us up for another few months. I am sure we will have some more exciting things to post as it starts to warm up. O, Katie's sister had her baby at about 3:30 this morning. He was a healthy 7lb 8oz. We are so excited to go see him later today.